Chapter 132.

PART 1.

It has been a week since Hatori and Munshi arrived in Sindapur, and the soul has been not seen by either of them. this does not mean that they are shirking their duty. The necromancer and his student are standing guard over the house, observing things, looking for the slightest chance of danger.

By bending the light around his body, Hatori is spending his time among the people, invisible to them. he has recently learned to silence his footsteps as well, for that extra advantage. He could not help but think how useful this bit of magic would have been, back when he had to flee from his attackers in the early days of his academic learning.

His recently regained eyesight, due to the eyeballs implanted in his scull made of steel, coupled with his sensory abilities, gives him all the tools to monitor the house, the people coming and going from inside and outside, and any strange activity. Though sensing people from a distance is good, eyesight is also better for getting visual confirmation.

For example, observing that bit of window curtain, trying to strangle a child. While remembering his early days, Hatori reveals himself and cuts the curtain. The leaves outside flutter in the wind, and a face appears and gives him an impressive glair to him from the outside of the window. Then, it gets inside and tries to attack the children. They screamed as children are known to do at the sign of danger, but Hatori took charge here.

“Go, run now!” he ordered, drawing a circle on the ground. “Tell anyone that I need Munshi on the third floor in this very room. go quickly!”

Hatori restrains the soul, as the children quickly scamper out of the dangerous place. His circle holds on for a moment, but it fails to restrain the soul. “Dammit, I drew a wrong circle.” He muttered, after sensing the frequency of its magic. it is good to imprison the spirits, but not the souls.

His circle is broken. Hatori prepares for combat, but the soul just looks at him consideringly and then disappears in the thin air. “I gotta learn to do that myself, one of these days.” He watched at the empty spot where a face was glaring at him before. Now that he thinks about it, judging from his rather limited experience with faces, it kind of looked womanly.

‘I should not judge so quickly. What if the soul used to be a man with a womanly face? And what if it is just a trick?’ he thinks, listening to the footsteps of Munshi, who logically has come alone.

After all, why would he bring people who have no experience in dealing with souls? “Report.” He demanded.

“The soul used the window curtain to strangle one of the children, I cut it. it then came from outside and tried to attack them directly. I stopped it, however, and told the children to run, and told them to get you here as soon as possible.” Explained Hatori. “But I drew the wrong circle, it was meant for spirits instead of souls in my panic. The soul broke through and then escaped. Sorry about that.” added Hatori at the end, feeling shame at such a stupid mistake. And Munshi drilled him in those circles so often too!

“Don’t worry about the circle.” Said Munshi. Many people make mistakes while panicking, he won’t hold it against his student. “Tell me though, were they wearing any protection lockets?” he asked. if they were, then that soul should not have been able to attack them like it did.

“No, they weren’t,” said Hatori. “And I know that I’m not good with remembering faces yet,” he looked around in panic, just to make sure no one else was listening to this conversation. After finding and sensing no one, Hatori continues. “But those children looked unfamiliar like they had just arrived here. they are likely one of the guests.”

Munshi thinks about what could he do to solve this problem. He won’t be able to enchant so many lockets, as more guests are likely to come. “I will enchant the lockets as fast as I can,” he settled on, “And you will guard the house. Do watch out for the children especially.”

“Put me on the babysitter duty, why don’t you?” he couldn’t help but mutter.

“None of the sass.” Said Munshi strictly.

Hatori nodded. at least these children do have an excuse to get protected. None of them have gone to the Academy yet, since they are too young for that. meaning, none of them have any experience in combat or getting out of tight situations.

PART 2.

Sannaphulla walks into the room, where Munshi is staying. There are a lot of lockets hanging by a thread, which is levitating in front of the necromancer. He is hard at work to design even more lockets to protect the guests. “Master Munshi, I am here to thank you for protecting the children of my guests.”

“No need to thank me. it is part of my job.” Said Munshi. “Besides, it wasn’t me entirely. My apprentice was the one who saved those children.”

“Indeed?” asked Sannaphulla. He initially dismissed the boy, what with his lack of eyeballs and everything. but it seems he is more than just a glorified note-taker for the necromancer.

“Indeed.” Confirms Munshi. “I have told him to keep an eye on the events going on in the house, while I enchant more lockets to protect the guests.”

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

“I will make sure that the boy has the full rain of the house, we shall not obstruct him in his duties in any way,” said Sannaphulla.

“Good. remember, we are here to protect you. and we can only do so until you allow us to. Otherwise, no number of observations and magical protection is going to save you from the threat that you face.” Said Munshi.

The patriarch nodded. he will remember the words of the necromancer, as he goes to his room to catch some sleep. The proceedings of marriage are tiring but necessary.

PART 3.

Shin is practicing his percussion. He is good with violin and piano, but percussion is not something that he does often. He knows this won’t be his specialty, but he practices with it enough to understand how it works and prevent the boredom from striking him and turning his brain into a rusty machine.

Besides, he has nothing else to do. That concert in front of Porus has yet to happen, and Professor Sangita is busy doing a conference with other music mages of the Subcontinent.

PART 4.

Surendra Sharma, along with his sons Samudra and Surendra Junior arrived near Sindapur, but they were too late. The ritual has progressed too far to stop it now. if they interfere now, it could level this entire area judging by the power Surendra sensed coming from the ritual sight.

The Sharmas present here already did not take kindly to their sudden arrival. They attacked them and drove them further and further from the sight of ritual, and now they are camping just on the borders of the Sindapur.

“You know, when they describe someone hiding in a camp, it sounds more glorious in the books.” Complained Surendra junior.

“Get over it, son.” Said Surendra. “Remember the purpose which brought us here.”

“Yeah, but we’re not doing anything. I think it would be better to ask for help from the city itself.” Said Surendra Junior.

“I doubt they would help us,” argued Surendra. “Besides, think what would they say about the clan?”

“Father, you cannot be serious.” Said Samudra. “This thing is going to blow up in the public, no matter which way you handle it. you cannot think of the reputation right now, after all, you can’t have much of a reputation when you’re dead.”

“What?” said Surendra. “How can you be so certain?”

“Because I checked the guy buried here,” said Samudra. “A real piece of work. If they manage to revive him under their control, it’ll spell doom for us all. We will need Porus here to deal with him, preferably with Zeko, Sundar, and headmaster Corvus to deal with this guy.”

“He was that strong?” asked Surendra Junior.

“Unfortunately for us, he was.” Said Samudra.

The father and the sons look at each other with worry. Maybe coming here with such haste was a bad move. Maybe, they should have talked with someone before they did that, but now they are trapped.

PART 5.

James is given a task to write an assignment, to explain the reasons for mages having a long lifespan compared to non-magical people. For this, he researched in the library and asked for some cells of non-magical people.

Slaughter gave him those, and James stimulated those cells with magic, and without magic. the cells stimulated in the magical environment lived longer and made healthy copies longer. As for how exactly Slaughter got these cells?

James decides not to ask about that. ‘Who knows what kind of horrific secret may come out? I already have enough issues in my life as it is.’ he thinks while remembering how the case with his father and his aunt is proceeding.

PART 6.

Hatori has to remove his invisibility spell when one of the children whom he saved a day before collides with him. “Hey, show us some awesome bit of magic!” he demanded.

Then he turned to them, and then the entire group followed him around. Hatori felt like a mother duck, followed everywhere by her ducklings. The groom Shashtadeva was amused to see this spectacle.

“I must say kid, you are quite strong for your age.” He said to Hatori during his free time. “I’m a senior myself, so I know the power you’ve hidden within you.”

“Thanks—” Hatori has to halt this dialog, as he hears the scream. The bride is thrown from the floor above, but Hatori stops her from hitting the ground by levitating her just in time.

The same face as the previous day comes to glair at him, and attacks Hatori with some wind spells. Hatori is horrified to see the damage that a compressed ball of air can do. However, he retaliates with his lightning spells, and the soul has to run off.

“Are you okay mam?” he asked the bride, not knowing her name, and not interested to learn it either.

“Yeah, just fine.” Said the woman. “I removed the locket just for a moment, and that thing pounced on me.”

Shashtadeva shook his head. He chides her for taking off the locket. Ignoring the couple, Hatori tries to sense the soul. It has managed to hide itself from him. ‘Is it mimicking the magic of other people?’ he thinks, since chameleons use the same strategy to hide in the forests by changing their colors, Hatori thinks it must be possible to do something similar with magic to hide from magical means of finding someone out.